Yemi’ Speech: A Jab With A Mastery Of Wordsmithing?

Dr.Jarlath Uche Opara Jarlathuche@gmail.com

I gave it to him, his flowers. However one looks at it, his mastery on words can’t be diminished by any thing under the sun . A mastery that is near impecability with the artistry of an artist whose brush is on a canvas, while the world stands in awe, waiting for the unveiling of his finished product.

Such artist draws with precision, giving nothing to chance, for in it his integrity, honor, relevance and respect lie.

Such was the portrait of former Vice President Yemi Osibanjo behind the pulpit, at the full glare of the timbers and calibers during the launch of “A Journey in Service” by Former President of Nigeria General Ibrahim Babangida.

He wasn’t the Cicero. He wasn’t the William Shakespeare, talk of any other person with the power to use words to weave the spider’ complex Web, Yemi isn’t such persons. He is just Professor Yemi Osibanjo, in the world of his own with the uniqueness that is far from being pedestrian. He is a self earned brand of an orator par- excellence, a comedian with classic jokes, very irrepressible.

It was a presentation that was a cancatenation of an amazing use of euphemism as a thread to weave through the delicate space of a paradox, using the color of oxymoron and personification to design the insignia of a simile and a metaphor to create an alliteration in the tapestry of his satire without sounding hyperbolic.

He said so many good things about the author, eulogized him , hyped and took him from the height of public decent acknowledgement of who he is to a place where one could easily misunderstand him as one without guile, fault, sin etc .

He poetical canonized the author a saint and poured water of baptism on him, cleansening him from all his sin committed as the President of Nigeria for eight years.

Was his speech a true expression of who Ibrahim Babangida is ? Or one set out to place him on a height of sinlessness? A Messiah that lifted Nigeria from the dungeon of economic foes to a haven of buoyancy through many policies and initiatives that gave birth to many institutions which today have become many of the hallmark of our evolving political dynamism? .

IBB opened up the economy, widened the door which attracted both the good,the bad the ugly?

Professor Yemi Osibanjo, was at his best, bringing out his amazing and unequalled mastery in the use of satire without scarcism. He told in what seemed like a humor the tale of how Nigeria as a little Virgin was used by the military in what looked like an act of”prostitution”, pushing her from one arm to another arm, satisfying nothing but the libidonous tendencies of their craves for Power ,fame and authority.

Not that these bunch of exuberant and energetic young military officers were having turns on Nigeria which caused her masive bleeding and the wrecking of her nervous system, they all had the effontery to come back many years after, sit on same table, clink glasses of wine and toast for their success and enterprise from the pains, agony and dysfunctionality of that young woman who today is still experiencing such excruciating pains of forced intimacy from those who frowned at it when she was forced on by those men in uniform years ago.

As he was telling the tale with humour, their ribbed tickled, they laughed without control and remembered those years either with nostalgia or otherwise. The truth is, in such a tale told by a Professor of law and classic humor, the truth of who our politicians are was said and the need not to see their wars, battles, gbas-gbos etc at one another in the interest of Nigeria crystal clear. Nigeria and Nigerians a table tennis ball in their hands 😭

On the book “A Journey In Service” I am still reading it, will be back shortly